1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a coin operated meter of the type employed as a parking meter. More particularly, the present invention relates to a coin operated meter which collects fees at a higher or penalty rate during a premium overtime period than during a prepaid time period and which holds coins in escrow to pay the higher overtime rate, returning the escrow coins upon actuation of the meter prior to the expiration of the prepaid time period and capturing the escrow coins automatically after expiration of the prepaid time period.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Overtime parking has created problems for both the local authorities responsible for monitoring parking and for the public using parking facilities. Parking meters which only collect fees at a single, prepaid rate do not discourage adequately use of the full time period permitted by the meter. Detection of overtime parking can only be accomplished by monitoring the meters and issuing parking tickets to the violators, which parking tickets involve a large administrative burden on the local authority and are a constant annoyance to the public. Additionally, parking tickets do not insure payment by the violator who is not subject to the jurisdiction of the local authorities and are not issued to all parking violators.
Conventional parking meters have employed mechanisms for retaining a token or card (which may comprise a coin) being held in escrow and for collecting different rates for different time periods. U.S. Pat. No. 2,198,779 to Long, discloses a parking meter having legal and overtime time periods including a mechanism which receives a token to actuate the timer and setting the meter for the legal time period. If the parker returns prior to expiration of the legal time period, the meter is simply opened and the parker removes the card or token from a retaining mechanism. If the parker has not returned until expiration of the legal time period, the retaining mechanism causes the token to drop into a recepticle where it is retained. However, no provision is made for locking the card in the meter to prevent unauthorized removal of the card from the meter.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,199,330 to Bullock et al relates to a parking meter having variable rates. The meter is started by inserting a five cent coin which is then returned to initiate a free parking period. Upon expiration of the free parking period, additional coins must be added to stop the meter from running depending upon the amount of time which has expired. A tumbler arrangement is provided for resetting the meter by a government official. No coins are held within the meter in escrow for any significant portion of the parking period and then returned to the parker. This arrangement is disadvantageous since it requires constant monitoring and a parker may simply leave the area without paying to stop the running of the meter.
Other conventional parking meter mechanisms are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,828,907 to Bock, 2,171,345 to Rockola et al, 2,070,445 to Miller et al and 3,208,573 to Carroll et al. Conventional mechanisms for retaining coins in escrow to facilitate removal of the coins from devices other than coin operated meters are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,777,555 to Banning, 3,805,936 to Jensen and 3,828,903 to Levasseur.
These conventional devices suffer from numerous deficiencies. For example, since the meter of the Long patent does not have a mechanism to prevent unauthorized removal of the card or token held in escrow in the meter, someone may merely remove the escrow card or token from the meter, thereby disrupting the entire parking system. The parking meter of the Bullock et al patent requires constant monitoring of the parking space to ensure that a parker stops the meter from running by paying the appropriate fees prior to leaving the space. The other parking meters are disadvantageous since they do not satisfy the need of collecting higher parking fees automatically for overtime parking to discourage overtime parking, without constant monitoring or the high administrative cost resulting from the issuance of parking tickets.